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Monday, August 20, 2012

Spiced Blondies with Chai-Infused Ganache

If you've been reading my blog for long enough, then you know I'm a big fan of using tea in desserts (see here, here and here). I've had a few tea bags of chai mix sitting in my kitchen and decided that a white chocolate ganache infused with all those spices and tea would taste amazing. I was totally right. And then I spread a wonderfully thick layer of the this delicious ganache on top of a blondie, which I also added lots of similar spices to.

They might not be much to look at, but the flavour of these little squares really packs a punch. Think of biting into one of these fudgy, cakey squares and tasting the brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, coriander seed, cloves and (my favourite) black pepper. I've been fascinated with using black pepper in sweet recipes, but this was the first time I really tested it out. I really, really love the way the pepper adds a little zing of flavour to this recipe. You wouldn't think it would work but it does, trust me. Just a word of warning, keep a close eye on your oven and don't let the blondies overcook like I did, I wish that mine were a lot less cooked through (still tasted awesome though).

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F), Brush a 17x27cm slice/brownie tin (or an 8-inch square baking pan) with butter; line pan with a piece of baking paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on two sides. Butter paper. Sift flour and ground spices together in a medium bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, whisk butter and sugar until smooth. Whisk in egg and vanilla. Add flour and spice mixture; stir together just until moistened (do not overmix). Transfer batter to prepared pan; smooth top. Bake until top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Set pan on a wire rack, and let cool completely.

Prepare the ganache. Place chopped chocolate in a heatproof mixing bowl. Place tea and cream in a medium saucepan and slowly bring to the boil. Remove from the heat when it just starts to boil. Pour over the chopped chocolate (strain to remove tea bits) and leave for 5 mins to allow chocolate to melt. Carefully whisk mixture until smooth (if there are still lumps, place the bowl over a pot of simmering water and stir until they are gone). Set aside to cool (or chill if you want to speed it up), until has returned to room temperature and is thickened but still spreadable, whisking every 5 mins or so to keep it smooth. Spread thickly over the top of blondies, smoothing with a spatula. Leave to set for at least half an hour. Using baking paper overhang, lift cake from pan and transfer to a cutting board; cut into 16 pieces. Can be stored in an airtight container for several days.

omg these look absoulutely amazing! I don't see many people here in Singapore drink Chai tea but i recently tried it out with my new dolce gusto coffee machine and i am loving it! What a lovely blondie packed full with spices, definitely going to try it out once i get my hands on chai tea leaves! :D

I'm also a fan of tea even in baking. I think it's a bit tricky to get a concentrated flavour. Usually I use unsalted butter and loose tea leaves. Melt the butter, add tea leaves, heat, strain the tea leaves and there you go.

Hey, I'm very excited to make this recipe but I have a question about an ingredient.The recipe calls for 400g (0.9 oz) good quality white chocolateHowever, those amounts are not equivalent. How much white chocolate should I use? Is 400g correct? If so, around 14oz., right?

The ganache is lovely - I could eat it with a spoon. I tried the recipe as written, though, and there's way too much salt. I only buy unsalted butter, and added the recommended 2 tsps. The blondies (although the spice level is lovely) are inedible because they're so salty. Checking around the web shows the typical amount of salt to add if using unsalted butter instead of salted is 1/4 tsp per 1/2 cup - so 1/2 tsp for the recipe. I'll try again with the salt changed, because the smell during baking was divine.

These were amazing, and the ganache flavor was to die for. The only problem was the ganache was quite runny and didn't firm up much even though I left it sitting for at least an hour before I iced the blondies. I had to put them in the fridge but they were still soft. Any tips? The flavor was still great and these went down a treat :)

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